


Gone

by clovesfanfic



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute Kids, Detective Ian Gallagher, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Kidnapping, Lawyer Mickey Milkovich, M/M, Protective Mickey Milkovich
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 21:02:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21167822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clovesfanfic/pseuds/clovesfanfic
Summary: Mickey Milkovich is the newly appointed Assistant District Attorney of Chicago at age 29, the youngest in the city’s history. When his son, the most important thing in the world to him, is taken right in front of his eyes, Mickey’s life is turned upside down. Ian Gallagher, Detective in the Special Victims Unit of the CPD is put on the case and he won't sleep until he finds this kid. Along the way, Ian and Mickey learn to lean on each other.





	1. Chapter 1

“How many days again?” Yevgeny Milkovich asked as he swung his dad’s hand back and forth as hard as his little body could manage. 

“29 days, Yev.” His dad answered, smiling down as his blonde boy, growing taller everyday. 

“29 days.” Yev repeated after his father, “29 days until my birfday.”

“That’s right tough guy!” Mickey encouraged, ever amazed at how smart his kid was. “And how old will you be?”

“FOUR!” Yev shouted, holding up three sticky fingers with the hand not in Mickey’s. 

“You got it bud, but this,” Mickey plucked Yev’s baby finger up as well, “is four.”

“Oh yeah,” Yev giggled. Yevgeny’s preschool class had been working on numbers for a few weeks and Mickey made sure to go above and beyond to help him at home. Pigs would fly before his kid was looked down upon in school the way he and his siblings had been back in the Southside. 

“And I’m gonna have sooo many dinosaurs at my party. And a dinosaur cake, and…” Mickey sighed happily, and kicked a rogue pine cone with his shoe as he listened to his son ramble about his upcoming dinosaur themed fourth birthday party. They were walking to the park, hand in hand, as they did most Sundays. Sundays were Yev days.

Life as an assistant district attorney didn’t leave Mickey with much free time, but no matter what case he was working on, or how many times his phone rang, he did everything he could to put it all aside on Sundays to give Yev his full attention. In the months that Yevgeny was approaching four, he had started to notice the pattern, referring to Sunday’s as _ daddy days _ and practically crawling out of his skin when put to bed on Saturday nights. It panged Mickey a little that his son became so excited for Sundays, making him worried he wasn’t giving Yev enough attention the other six days of the week. 

Ultimately, Mickey knew he was doing what was best for his son. Working as hard as he could to provide a life for his son he never had. It wasn’t as if he was totally absent Monday through Friday, he just typically only saw Yev before dropping him at school and then when he got home, usually after Yev’s nanny had fed him dinner, but before Yev’s bed time. Saturdays were always a guessing game. Sometimes he was able to hand off work to his associates, but other times he had deadlines the district attorney wanted him to attend to himself. 

It was a struggle to balance work and home life but he wouldn’t trade Yev for the world. He was his three foot pride and joy. _ Splash. _Most of the time. “Dammit Yev!” Mickey shrieked as the water from the puddle Yev had just jumped in splashed up over Mickey’s legs, working it’s way between Mickey’s socks and the hem of this pants to coat his bare leg. The sun was out but the water was still cool from the previous night’s rain, and Mickey shivered as it ran down his ankle onto his shoes and socks. 

Yev hit Mickey with his big blue puppy dog eyes, looking guilty as ever, “Sorry Daddy!” Yev’s head hung after apologized and Mickey felt like shit. Yev really was a good boy, and rarely intentionally misbehaved. 

“It’s okay, Yev,” Mickey quickly consoled, “I know you didn’t mean it, the cold water just surprised me.”

And as quickly as it had come, Yev’s somber face was gone and replaced by his usual wide toothy grin. Yev’s positivity and ability to move on quickly was something Mickey loved that about his boy. When he was a boy on the other hand, he was indubitably stubborn, vowing to hold grudges against anyone who yelled or wronged him. He’d worked hard on fixing that trait once out of the clutches of his father, but still popped up from time to time. 

Yevgeny practically skipped the rest of the way, and would have full on run if Mickey hadn’t held him tight in his hand. For all of Yev’s amazing qualities, Mickey would say his one downfall would be his desire to wander. Yevgeny was positively horrible at staying by his father’s side. Mickey had all but bought one of the toddler backpack leashes for him when it came to working on that not running off. During public outings, Mickey would bribe Yev with candy, screen time, staying up late and just about anything he could think of to get Yev to stay by his side. It didn’t typically work. He would never go far, just a little out of Mickey’s line of sight, enough to make his heart stop until he turned around and spotted his boy. 

“Slide first!” Yev called as Mickey finally let go of his hand once in the park and darted straight over to the yellow spiral slide, climbing up the structure you get to the opening. Just a few months ago Yev had conquered the slide on his own and it had since become his new obsession. Dropping his proudest smile on Mickey every time he reached the bottom. 

Yev repeated the slide process over and over, Mickey snapping pictures of him a few of the rounds, setting one particularly cute one as his new lock screen. 

“Push me, Daddy” Yev squealed as he was suddenly done with the slide and running as fast as his toddler legs could take him over to the big kid swings. Mickey dutifully followed along, throwing Yev’s discarded jacket over his shoulder, and stood behind the swing as Yev raised his arms in preparation for Mickey to plop him on the swing, as was their routine. He hiked up Yev by the armpits and brought him back over the seat and placed him down. 

“Hold tight, Yev,” Mickey reminded as he always did. Who would have thought Mickey Milkovich would turn into a helicopter dad. 

“Okay.” 

And then Mickey was pushing Yev back and forth on the swing, listening to the beautiful sound of his son laughing with joy. “Want to try pumping again?” Mickey asked as he slowed down his pushes. 

Mickey couldn’t see his son’s face, but he could tell by the head tilt he was thinking it over. They had tried it a few weeks ago but it had been a touchy subject since seeing as Yev had concentrated so hard on the pumping, he loosened his hands and ended up toppling off the swings with Mickey bandaging up a scraped knee. 

“Um, okay,” Yev finally decided which had Mickey grinning on the inside, happy his kid wasn’t a quitter. 

“Okay, remember, when the swing goes back, tuck your legs in and then shoot them back out when the swing goes forward,” Mickey explain as he gave Yev a starter push. “And don’t let go!”

“I know Daddy,” Yev answered gripping his fists tight around the metal chains, determined not to let go. Soon enough Yev had gotten the hang of pumping, “I’m doing it Daddy!”

“Yes you are!” Mickey ran around to the front of the swing to snap some action shots of his happy boy, noticing a sliver of rainbow against the clear blue sky, making for a perfect backdrop. 

As he was putting his phone away, it started buzzing with an incoming text from his boss, the Chicago district attorney, Blake Hayes. 

_ Hayes: Call me asap re the Halston case! _

Mickey sighed, looked over at his son, swinging away like a champ and back at his phone screen. His coworkers, even his boss knew he liked to spend Sundays with his son and were typically respectful of that, so he knew it had to be something important if he was texting. 

“Daddy swing too!” Yev squealed causing Mickey to look up. Mickey tucked his lips before releasing them and another big sigh. “One sec Yev, I just gotta make a call.”

“Oh,” Yev said looking dejected. Mickey hated that look, but he knew if he wanted to become the district attorney one day, he had to be on call. Always. 

He stepped a few paces away and hit Hayes’ number in his contacts, the older man answering on the first ring. 

“Milkovich, we got a problem.” Mickey listened as his boss explained how their star witness in the Halston case was thinking of backing out. Mary Halston had been found dead under the L tracks six months ago, with her abusive husband Alan being the prime suspect. Their elderly neighbor reported seeing Alan dragging a large bag into the trunk of his car in the middle of the night, after Mary’s last known sighting earlier that day. It was like pulling teeth for Mickey and Blake trying to convince the old woman to testify who was deathly afraid of retaliation. But it seemed as if the woman was backing out again. 

When it came to convincing people to do things they didn’t want to do, Hayes knew Mickey was his guy. His approach, somewhere between tough love and understanding, led to alot of getting his way in his career, even with the witnesses. 

“How ‘bout I pay her a visit tomorrow? Bring her something from the bakery she likes. See if I can talk her down from the ledge?”

“That would be fantastic. First thing in the morning alright? Trial’s two weeks away and we can’t afford to screw this up.”

“I know, boss. I’ll get it done.”

“Thanks Milkovich. Can always count on you.”

_ Can always count on you. _Mickey liked being accountable, whether it was to work or his son, it was something he never had to be growing up, never thought he would want to be, but found accountability made him thrive. The pressure to live up to a task was a pressure he worked well under. 

Mickey pocketed his phone and turn back towards the swings to see how Yev was doing with the pumping. His heart stopped for a second when the swing Yev was previously occupying was empty. However, Mickey quickly remember it was his kid, the wanderer after all, and scanned his eyes over the other playground equipment to see where his tot had run off too. 

The relief that would quickly wash over him as soon as he spotted Yev in times before didn’t come. Mickey tried not to panic as he looked a little more indepthly at different areas. He wasn’t back over at the slide, nor attempting the monkey bars, he was still more comfortable doing them with Mickey by his side, and he wasn’t with the other kids playing in the sand. 

Now Mickey was starting to panic and as he jogged to the center of the park for a better view, “Yev!” he called, waiting to hear the tiny voice pop up. “Yevgeny!” he called again when his first call went unanswered, spinning in a circle, scanning every available place.

“Fuck.” Mickey ran over to the climbing structure, to get a higher view now, still not finding his son. “Yevgeny!!” Mickey continued to yell, and now parents and children were taking notice of the frantic man screaming his child’s name. Parents quickly ran to their own kids, standing next to them as Mickey continued screaming for Yevgeny, panic fully settling into every crevice of his body. 

A few moms came up to him, “what does he look like?”

Mickey scrambled to pull out his phone, showing the women his new lock screen, “he’s three and he’s got blonde hair and blue eyes. This picture is from today.”

“Okay, let’s each take a section of the park,” one of the women explained, knowing Mickey needed someone to take control right now to keep him from spiraling. They were all parents in the same boat after all. 

Mickey nodded and went off one way, as the mothers dragged their children to other ends of the park, covering those areas. 

With no luck in his area, Mickey ran back to the center, and watched as the other moms came back, looks of despair across all their faces. 

“Call 911.” One of the moms urged, “We can’t find him.”

“Fuck!” Mickey screamed, and none of the mom’s seemed to care about the cursing, clearly understanding a parent’s desperation. 

Mickey unlocked his phone, and dialled with shaky fingers. “We’ll keep looking!” The mom’s agreed, while one stayed with Mickey for emotional support. 

The dispatcher answer immediately, “911, what is your emergency?”

“I need the police at Hilltop Park right now, my son is missing! He’s been taken.” _ Taken. _Saying it outloud made it real. He hadn’t just wandered off. He was kidnapped. The only thing important in his life was missing and there was nothing he could do about. 

He was snapped out of his harrowing thoughts by the dispacters voice, “Sir, the police have been dispatched and should be there any minute. What is your son’s name and age?”

“Y-Yevgeny Milkovich, he’s three and a half. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. Tell them to fucking hurry, someone took my kid!”

“Sir, you need to stay calm, the police are on the way.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, my kid is missing!”

“Sir, I understand, but the police will need you to be calm and articulate so you can help locate your son as quickly as possible.”

Mickey was reading to whip out another quip when he heard the sounds of the sirens. He ran to the curb to meet the cops, hanging up with the dispatcher in the process. 

“I’m Mickey, it’s my son who’s missing,” Mickey spat at the first cop he saw, and tall tan man with black hair, cut military style. 

“I’m Officer Jensen from Chicago PD” The man shook Mickey’s hand, “we have a few more cars coming in, were going to search the park. We’ll find your son. Cases like this are pretty routine, kids that age can walk off in the blink of an eye. Do you have a recent photo?” 

Mickey huffed but handed the man his phone with Yev’s photo, “he didn’t just wander off, he would never go that far. And we already looked!” Mickey explained, gesturing to the helpful moms who had made their way over to Mickey and the cops. 

“You may have but we’re trained in this sort of thing. We know where to look.” Jensen patronizingly added. 

Mickey took offense to that, “It’s not fucking rocket science. We know how to look for a toddler! He’s not in the damn park. You need to set out one of those amber alert things and look at the damn security cameras in the area! Something besides just looking around like we already did for 20 minutes!”

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down.” If one more person told him to calm down, he would show them how _ not _calm he could really be. “It’s too soon to put out an alert since no one actually saw the kid being abducted.”

“His name is Yevgeny,” Mickey yelled in the man’s face, disgusted he would call him _ kid _ when he was missing. 

“Yev-jenny,” The man repeated, butchering his Russian name. “And we have our tech team looking for security cameras in the surrounding area. We are doing everything we can right now to find him. Let’s all take one more look around the park before doing anything else.”

Mickey wanted to punch the guy out but refrained as that wouldn’t help find his son. They looked for about five more minutes before Mickey couldn’t take it. “You gotta do something else. I’m telling you man, he’s not here. My son is not here. Someone has taken him! I’m the fucking Assistant D.A. of Chicago, and I’ll have your ass if you don’t put out an amber alert, get the fucking canine unit down here or something!”

The man’s eyes widened at Mickey’s outburst, “You’re the ADA?"

“Yes! And unless you want me to sue your ass, you better do something else to find my damn son.”

The man nodded quickly, gesturing to his partner, “call Special Victims, tell them to get the canine unit down here too.”

_ Special Victims. _Mickey knew what cases they worked, he’s tried tons of them in his career. Child sex abuse, hate crimes...kidnappings. His son was now a special victim. The sick feeling rose from where it had been stagnant since his son disappeared, up his throat and had Mickey lurching for the trash can close by.

He emptied the contents of his stomach before wiping his mouth and letting out a desperate scream. His son was gone and he had to stay there and wait while other people looked for him. He didn’t like not being in control. He was always in control, whether it was in the courtroom to make sure the jury went his way, or with how he parented his son, Mickey needed to be doing something useful. 

After what felt like an hour but was probably closer to five minutes, a few more cop cars pulled up. Since the first cops arrived, the park had been caution taped off, and all the parents and children at the park when Yev disappeared were waiting in line to make statements. 

Soon Mickey saw a tall red head make his way across the green grass, his uniform a darker blue than the other cops there. He stopped in front of Mickey, not even having to ask who the parent was based on Mickey’s distress. 

“Hi, Mr. Milkovich, My name is Ian Gallagher, I’m a detective with Chicago’s Special Vicitm’s Unit, we specialize in cases like this.”

“What are you 18? They couldn't send a real cop?” Mickey argued once Ian approached and he got a good look at the man’s youthful appearance. 

“I’ve been an officer for five years and almost two years in this unit, I know these kinds of cases. We’re going to find your son alright? The canine unit should be here in ten minutes. Is that his jacket you got there?” Ian asked, pointing to Mickey’s shoulder. He had completely forgotten about it. 

“Yeah. Yeah it is. Can they use it to find him? He was wearing it right before he was taken.”

“Definitely, that’s really good, Mr. Milkovich,” the detective soothed. With anyone else it would have felt like he was being talked down to but with Detective Gallagher it felt like Mickey was finally doing something to help. 

“Talk to me about recent events. Have you noticed anyone watching you or your son? Anything out of the ordinary?”

“Watching us? No!” Mickey sputtered, shocked at what Ian was implying. “You think someone was stalking us and planned this?”

“It’s possible, Mr. Milkovich,” Ian explained, dishearteningly. 

Mickey figured some creep passing by must half saw his son and took him spur of the moment. Buf if his kidnapping was planned, that was a whole other realm of scary. That would mean the person was watching his own tracks, purposely blending in and knowing where to hide the kid to do god knows what to. It also meant, they had been around for at least a few days and Mickey hadn’t noticed them. How could he have been so stupid, so absent? Mickey felt sick again, but held it down. 

“Why my kid, he’s just a little boy? He’s my little boy. Why would they do this?” Mickey practically pleaded with Ian, losing all sense of calm if he’d had any left to begin with. 

“I don’t know. my coworkers said you are the district attorney, that’s a pretty important job but I have to imagine you make some enemies.”

Mickey’s stomach lurched. Could it be possible that this was some sort of retaliation. Someone recently released from their prison sentence coming to get revenge on Mickey in the worst way possible? Mickey had helped put away hundreds of violent offenders. Mickey realized the list of possible suspects was endless as he ran to the trash can again. 


	2. Chapter 2

Mickey pulled his head out of the trashcan to Ian holding out a water bottle in his direction. He took it gratefully. “Drink this.” He heard Ian say over the noise in his head. “Have you called his mother?”

Mickey shook his head. Fuck. He’d promised Svetlana he would never let anything happen and he can’t even make it three years. What a fuck up. What was the point of working so hard if Yevgeny wasn’t there to benefit from it. “N-no. She’s uh, she passed when he was a baby.”

Ian’s forehead creased, “I’m really sorry to hear that.” He seemed like he genuinely meant it, but wasn’t pitying him the way it seemed everyone else did when he told them he was a single dad. 

The next hours were spent with canvassing the park and spreading out further and further looking for anything out of the ordinary while the parents in the park gave statements. “Detective Gallagher!” Ian turned around to the sound of his name and he and Mickey ran over to where an officer stood with a woman and waving him over. “Might have something.”

The mom spoke up as her tyke clung to her legs, “I was watching my son on the swings, and saw a man talking to your son.” Mickey felt his stomach drop. “Next time I looked over his swing was empty but up ahead,” the woman gestured to the front entrance of the park, “it looked like that same man carrying the kid away.”

“Oh my God.” Mickey panicked. Why hadn’t his kid screamed and kicked? Mickey taught him over and over what to do if a stranger ever tried to take him. Ian was intently writing notes in his pad as the woman continued.

“The kid seemed fine with him and my son Charlie had just gotten on the swings so I hadn’t seen you with him. If I had I would have came and got you.” Mickey nodded in thanks. It wasn’t this woman’s fault he wasn’t paying attention to his own kid. 

“Thank you Miss, do not hesitate to call me if you remember anything else.” Ian said as he handed the woman his card and she took her son home from the park. The same thing Mickey should have gotten to do. 

Two hours in and the canine unit had finally arrived. It was three German Shepherds and their handlers. Mickey almost broke down as he watched dog after dog sniff his son’s blue jacket and immediately trot to the curb at the entrance of the park and sit down. “What the fuck, Gallagher? Why they just sitting there?” He knew why. He just needs the detective to tell him for it to become real. 

“Unfortunately that means they’ve lost Yevgeny’s scent. It likely means he was taken in a car at this location.”

“Fuck!”

“This is actually good news.”

“Good news?” Mickey huffed, thumbing his mouth. “You wanna explain to me how the fuck my son being kidnapped is good news?”

Ian was continually calm through Mickey’s outburst, “It means we know a piece of information. We know he was taken officially, and didn’t wander off. We know it was a car and can know look at surveillance tapes around the area. Anything we can rule out at this point is good news.”

Mickey huffed, not sure he bought it. 

Before he knew it, Mickey looked at his phone and it was close to 9pm. It had gotten dark and the only people milling about besides him and the officers were a couple looky lews wondering what the commotion was about. He wanted to tell them all to fuck off. His worst nightmare was not their fucking freak show. 

“Mr. Milkovich.”

“Mickey.”

“Sorry, Mickey,” Ian repeated, “the Amber Alert is out and now that it’s dark we’ve done all we can do for the day.” He gently placed his hand on Mickey’s shoulder. Mickey let it stay. “I think you should go home and get some rest until morning.”

Mickey jerked away at that. “The fuck you mean, go home? My kid is out there missing and terrified and I’m supposed to go sit on my ass like some fucking bum?” 

Ian, again, didn’t flinch at the words. Mickey figured this wasn’t his first rodeo and he was a frightened parent who needed to lash out. “Yevgeny,” he pronounced it perfectly even though Mickey had only said it to him once, “would not want you to run yourself ragged. What you can do though, is stay by your phone incase anyone calls. It’s possible the motive could be ransom due to the nature of your job.”

“That’s good then right? We just wait for the call, and I pay and then they give me back Yev?”

Ian hesitated, “Well, it’s not always that simple. If it is ransom, they typically call within the first six hours and we’re now into hour eight.” Mickey’s felt his heart his his feet. This was about something more than money. Ian could sense the shift, “But do not lose hope. That’s just an average, alright?”

Mickey nodded. 

“We have our tech squad canvasing all nearby security cameras and should have some images by early morning. Our guys are working 24/7 on this. We have people manning the tip line and looking into the people you’ve put away who have a history of violent crimes. You have my word.”

Mickey nodded again, more strongly. Maybe he misjudged Detective Gallagher. He was young but determined. Mickey believed him. “Don’t just look at violent criminals, look into them all. Check all their alibis. This is my kid!”

“I know, Mickey. We’ll be in touch in the morning, sooner if we get anything. Do you need a ride back to your place?”

Mickey shook his head, he needed to walk. He couldn’t dare be stuffed into a car. He was already feeling trapped inside his own body. 

________________________________________________

Mickey bolted upright out of Yevgeny’s bed at the first knock. He looked at his phone lying next to him that told him it was a few minutes after five in the morning. He looked at where he was, Yevgeny’s bed, and everything came rushing back to him. The day before had been a nightmare and he was praying that’s all it would be when he woke up. He couldn’t sleep the night before and found himself in Yev’s room, touching all his possessions, cursing himself for letting this happen to the most important thing in his world. It was only once he lied down on Yevgeny’s bed for the familiar and calming scent that he was able to fall asleep. Now he was awake and running to the door as a knock this early was sure to be the cops. 

Standing on his porch was Ian Gallagher, red hair flaming with the morning sun directly behind him. Next to him was a female cop with tan skin and kind but hard eyes. “Mickey, this is my partner Kayla Reager, can we come in?”

Mickey nodded furiously, “Have you found him?” What a stupid question. If they’d found him, he’d have his son in his arms. 

Ian and his partner sat down on the couch as Mickey paced the living room, far too anxious to stay still. It was a miracle he’d even managed a few hours of sleep. When he’d gotten home last night he’d let his work know what was going on and found them to be incredibly forgiving for once. Since he stepped foot in law school at age 21, he’d found that entire field to be work before anything. And he was completely on board with that until Yevgeny came into the picture. Now it was a constant battle for his time. Where he could disappoint Yevgeny and still have him as his son, he couldn’t disappoint his bosses, for he would lose his job. And if he lost his job, he couldn’t support his son, and then his son would be taken from him, and he couldn’t let that happen. So he told himself he was doing it all for Yevgeny to have the childhood he never had. A childhood where he never had to steal food for dinner, always had the water turned on, and even took vacations when Mickey’s schedule was light. 

But right now, Mickey felt like a fool, he’d done everything right and his son was still taken from him. 

“We haven’t, but we have updates.” Detective Reager answered. 

“TARU went over security cameras in the area and fortunately there were three at the stores across the street.” Mickey nodded as Ian pulled out an Ipad and gestured for Mickey to sit down. “This might be disturbing for you to see but we need to know if you recognize the person and vehicle in this clip.”

Mickey swallowed and Ian hit play. Immediately he could see it was an angle of the park from across the street. You could barely make out the swingset in the far right let alone the people on it. Ian pointed at it, “There’s Yev.” Mickey watched as a grown man saunters over from the left side of the playground, coming into view and stopping Yev’s swing. He crouches down and in less than 15 seconds, he has Yevgeny off the swing and leading him by the hand towards the entrance of the park. But the only thing Mickey could focus on was himself. Standing with his back towards Yev, gesturing wildly with his hands as he talked on the phone, not even turning around until 20 seconds after his son had left the screen. 

“I’m not a bad dad,” Mickey heard himself breath out through his dry throat. Detective Gallagher immediately grabbed his hand. He’d worked with some SVU detectives before and knew they were trained to comfort, so he didn’t think much of it. 

“Of course you’re not Mickey.” Ian leaned towards him, “These things can happen in the blink of an eye. I know my words might not mean much but try not to blame yourself.” 

“It’s my damn fault. I wasn’t watching my kid!”

“Okay, why don’t we look at the next clip,” Reager interjected. Ian swiped to the next one.

It was a different angle, closer to the car, but the license wasn’t visible. He watched as the man walked around to the street side and picked up his kid and put him in the car. No fucking car seat. The man looked around real quick and then got in the driver’s seat and sped off. And that was all there was to it. 30 seconds and his kid was gone. 

“I know it’s pretty fuzzy but do you recognize that man or vehicle?”

“N-no, I’ve never seen him. Or the car.” 

Ian nodded along, and wrote things down in his notepad. “Okay, we can tell it’s a white Toyota Corolla, so that’s a start at least.”

“So you go stop every fucking white toyota right?” Mickey asked roughly. 

“Well it’s not that simple, Mr. Milk- Mickey,” Ian corrected himself. 

“The fuck you can’t!” Mickey was up again. 

“This early on in the investigation it isn’t feasible for us to stop every car. We just don’t have the manpower to have a police car on every street. But we do have checkpoints at the city limits. So if he tries to drive outside of Chicago we have a better chance of catching him.”

“And what if the creep stays in the city?”

“Well it does become more difficult then,” Reager interjected. “We are stopping white Toyota Corollas we see, but right now we only have four cars circling the immediate area, so it’s possible we won't see the perpetrators car. It’s also quite common for suspects to switch cars.”

“Mickey, I’d like to take this time to go over some of your cases with you, see if anyone stands out. Then we can check alibis.”

Mickey looked at the list of cases Ian produced, “How did you narrow it down?”

“Well I stayed back last night to go through every single one and these 35 had red flags.”

“You stayed all night?”

“Of course,” Ian smiled as he shuffled his papers, “now let’s take a look.”

They spent the next hour and a half going over cases before Detective Reagar’s phone rang. She stepped out of the living room to take it. Ian turned over the case in his hand and looked up, “Mickey, is there anyone that you can call to be here with you? You shouldn’t be alone during this.”

“I already called my sister last night. She’s flying in from New York right now. Don’t really got much else”

“That’s good you’re sister’s coming.” Ian said. 

Mickey didn’t answer, just rubbed his eyes. “So what comes next?”

“Next, you let us do our job. We already have tips coming in, with his face being all over the news and social media.”

“It is?” Mickey was so distraught last night he hadn’t even turned on the TV. 

“Yes sir.” Ian answered. “We’re good at our jobs Mickey,” Ian looked him in the eye. “I’m personally going to do everything I can to make sure Yevgeny comes back to you.”

Mickey breathed in, “Come back...alive?”

“We can’t make promises like that. But I’m doing absolutely everything,” and he squeezed Mickey’s knee next to his own on the couch. 

As comforting and warm as his hand was, Mickey really wished that Ian would have lied to him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a shorter chapter!  
I went to the Shameless Season 10 Advanced Screening last night and saw Ep 1 and met other Gallavich stans! Such a blast!
> 
> OH  
I've gotten some people asking so...  
No Yevgeny's will be harmed in the making of this fic.

The next day had Mickey and Mandy meeting the officers bright and early. There was a scheduled grid walk for some of the forested areas in the outer parts of the city. He was riding with Detectives Gallagher and Reager to one of the areas. He has no idea how many, if any volunteers will show up besides Mandy. He knows he sure as shit didn’t show up for any grid searches for other missing kids he saw on the news. 

They hopped in Ian’s cruiser and drove to the edge of the city. Mickey thought back to the previous night. After Ian had left, he spent hours scouring the social media pages of people he’d put away, but were now out. Nothing stood out to him. Or he didn’t really know what to look for. He felt utterly useless sitting on his ass even though Ian kept insisting he let the cops do their job.  _ Ian?  _ When did he start referring to him by his first name. They weren’t buddies. 

Mickey’s jaw dropped as they parked the car, there were at least 100, maybe 150 people huddled in the parking lot. And this was only one of the search sites. “Who are all these people” Mickey asked at the same time he heard Mandy breathe out, “Woah.”

Since Reager was driving, Ian spun around to face the siblings, and smiled kindly, “Many of the volunteers are from organizations that support missing kids, child trafficking, that type of thing. Of course there’s also your run of the mill suburban mom who saw the news and wanted to help.”

Mickey was in awe that all these people would set aside time to help them and felt tears well up in his eyes. He wiped them away. He hadn’t cried yet. As far as he’d gotten from Southside, he still wouldn’t consider himself soft. He could hear his father telling him that  _ only bitches cried _ , anytime he came close. He’d only allowed himself to cry once. The day Svetlana died. He sobbed into his pillow. How was he supposed to take care of a baby all on his own? But after that day, he picked himself up by his bootstraps and did what he had to do for Yev. 

As they got out of the car, Ian pulled him aside, “You alright?” Great, Ian had seen him tearing up. “Sorry that was a stupid question, of course you’re not.” Ian shook his head and looked disappointed in his head. “I know better than to ask that.”

For some reason, Mickey wanted to get rid of the look on Ian’s face. “It’s cool, man.” Ian smiled, Mickey thought he had a great smile. “Just a lot, ya know? Seeing all these people come out for Yev.”

Ian smiled and Mickey felt the first bit of relief he’d felt in 36 hours. 

They made their way to the group where Mickey immediately spotted some of his coworkers. He was swiftly enveloped in a hug by his assistant Devla. “We’ll find him Mickey. We will.”

Mickey appreciated her optimism, even if unfounded given the situation. 

Ian went on to grab a megaphone and explain how the process worked. All civilians were to pair up for liability reasons and each pair should take about 30 feet wide and immediately pass along the message if they saw anything out of the ordinary, including clothing, cigarettes, fresh dug dirt, etc.. Mickey stood back as everyone paired off and started to walk. 

“Hey,” he turned at the sound of the familiar voice. “Wanna be my partner?” Ian asked.

Mickey huffed, “Well we’re the only ones left, so...”

“Right,” Ian smiled down at himself and Mickey swore he saw the cops cheeks turn pink. What the fuck was that about?

They’d been walking for about 15 minutes, nothing unusual sticking out to either of them, Mickey wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign, when Mickey decided to break the comfortable silence. “So how come I haven’t seen you around before?”

“What do you mean?” Ian asked, without looking up from scanning the ground. 

Ian mimicked him, keeping his eyes alert, “Well I've been trying SVU cases for years now, so we work with the cops a lot. But I’ve never seen you until this week.”

“Ah,” Ian hummed. “I just transferred back to Chicago.”

Mickey broke protocol and looked at Ian, “Where were you before?” He thought it only made sense to get to know the person who could be saving his son’s life. 

“Florida for a bit. I did grow up in Chicago though, but ran away from home when I was 17....relationship issues.” 

“Chicks can be crazy.”

“So can guys.” Ian offered casually. 

Mickey coughed abruptly, “Dirt,” he covered when Ian looked at him questioningly.

Ian nudged some brush out of the way as they kept walking and chatting. “I always wanted to help people and I like staying fit and I don’t know I guess that kinda lent itself to either the Army or police force in my mind, and I knew if I didn’t die fighting for my country, my family would have killed me themselves for joining the military. They were pissed enough at me for leaving.”

“They know you can get shot up as cop too right?” Mickey found it easy to chit chat with Ian. He hadn’t found anything easy in almost 48 hours. 

Ian chuckled at that, “Yeah, yeah they know. But I guess they saw it as less of a threat and something that wouldn’t take me farther away. And I was pretty set on it anyway.”

“Mmm,” Mickey hummed in understanding. He only had Mandy but he still knew it was tough being away from her at times. “So what made you come back?”

“Grew up.” Ian answered bluntly. “Realized it doesn’t matter where you run, it doesn’t solve anything. You can have problems anywhere. Might as well have your family around to support you. Only wish it wouldn’t have taken me ten years to figure that out.” 

“Must be nice,” Mickey mused, “having a bunch of people care about you like that.”

Ian scrunched his brow in confusion, “Look how many of your friends came out for you Mickey?”

“I think that’s more ‘cause Yev’s got them all wrapped around his little finger.”

“Maybe. But I get the sense they’re here for you too.”

Mickey didn’t respond, always uncomfortable with vulnerability, so he changed the subject. “Have you put out the video of the kidnapping?”

Ian shook his head, “No, not yet. We’re holding that back for now. We don’t want the suspect to possibly see it and move locations or retaliate if Yevgeny is still alive, so we’re working other angles for the time being.”

Mickey gulped.  _ If.  _

They walked in silence a bit longer, “Can I ask you something else?”

“‘Course.” Ian answered.

“At this point… do you think I’m gonna get him back?”

“Mickey…”

“Don’t lie to me, Ian. Please.”

“I don’t know.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween everyone!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have some new perspectives in this chapter.

“Benny, please,” Teresa pleaded with her son. “Just drop him anywhere. No one will know.”

“No, Ma!” 

“This is not right, mijo.”

“How can you say that Ma?” 23 year old Benny paced the living room of the small apartment he shared with his mother. “After what he did to us?”

“You know that wasn’t his fault.”

“Then who’s fault was it, huh? Was it Jason’s fault.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” Teresa shook her head. She understood her son’s pain. She carried that same pain with her everyday. 

“So he stays here.”

“What is your plan then? Just keep him locked in the house forever, hmm?”

“Fuck!” Benny cursed grabbing the sides of his black hair, “I don’t have one. Just let me think!”

“It’s been two days already. You’re dragging me into this mess too.”

Benny sat down next to his mom on the couch, he took her hand. “I’m sorry, Ma. I didn’t even think. I just, I just saw him there and did it.”

Teresa gently placed her hand on her eldest son’s cheek, “You’ve always been my passionate one.” Benny smiled lightly at the love his mother always had for him. “Better go check if he’s still asleep, we were pretty loud there.”

Benny got up dutifully and opened the door to his bedroom, he stopped and looked down at the makeshift bed on the floor, constructed out of mismatched blankets and couch pillows. The little blond boy was still sound asleep. 

Benny carefully avoided him as he crawled into his own bed for the night. He was in way over his head. 

______________________________________________

Was he going to see his son turn four? That was the question on Mickey’s mind when he woke up on day four of his son missing. He was still sleeping in Yevgeny’s toddler bed, legs scrunched even for a guy of his stature, but it was the first night he’d managed to sleep for more than three hours. He didn’t like that. Mickey thought that meant he was getting complacent with the situation. Like it wasn’t novel anymore so it was suddenly okay for him to sleep for six hours instead of laying in bed wide awake thinking over every little thing he did wrong at the park. 

His only solace was trying to remember what Detective Gallagher told him after they’d finished the unsuccessful grid walk the day before.  _ Try to get some sleep. You’ll be no use to Yev if he comes home and you can barely function. _

His phone ringing is what gets him out of his reverie. He springs up when he sees the caller I.D. “Gallgher? You got anything.”

“Possibly.” Mickey’s heart leapt. 

“Got a call from the Evanston precinct. Little blonde boy wandering around on his own. Paw Patrol shoes like Yevgeny. Trying to get them to forward a picture asap. Wanted to keep you in the loop.”

“Yeah, yeah of course thank you.”

“Of course, I’m just getting off a night shift and I’m passing by your place, want me to come over, so you can be there right away when I get the picture?”

“Yes!” Mickey practically yelled, then more calmly, “I’ll go unlock the door.”

“The fuck is taking so long?” Mickey wondered out loud as Ian sat at the table holding his phone. 

“Apparently the boy is screaming bloody murder and thrashing around and they can’t get a clear shot.”

“Fuck. What if that’s Yev? He’s gotta be scared outta his mind.”

“The good news is if it is him, the scary part is about to be over. He’s about to have his Daddy again.”

“Wish they would just send the damn photo.”

_ Ding _

Mickey rushed to Ian’s side at his kitchen table. Ian opened up his messages to reveal a red faced blonde boy being held by a detective. 

Mickey’s heart sunk. “S’not him.” Ian sighed. “Damn it. Damn it!” Mickey stood up and walked out of the room.

“I’m sorry Mickey,” Ian voiced after him. “Really thought it’d be him.”

“Don’t want your fuckin’ apologizes Red. Just want my fucking son! OW FUCK!” Mickey yelled as his fist connected with the living room wall. 

“Shit.” Ian jumped into action, swinging open the freezer and pulling out an ice back. He grabbed a kitchen rag on his way to Mickey. “C’mere,” Ian gestured to the couch and Mickey obediently followed, clutching his hand. 

It wasn’t two seconds after Ian lifted his hand and gently placed the ice on it that the flood gates finally opened. “It-it was s-supposed to be him. Why wasn’t it him?”

Ian abandoned the ice and pulled Mickey to his chest and Mickey felt Ian’s warm neck against his face. He was probably getting tears and snot all over his uniform. “I’m so sorry Mickey. I can’t imagine how angry you must feel. I’m so sorry it wasn’t him.” Ian comforted honestly. 

Mickey pulled back after a few seconds still sobbing about his baby boy and looking into Ian’s eyes. “S-sorry. Sorry.”

“No don’t ever apologize for your feelings. _ Especially _ right now.”

“What the fuck is going on out--.” Mandy asked as she made her way into the living room and stopped short at the sight of her brother crying into the arms of Detective Gallagher. “Oh my God, is it Yev?”, Mandy voiced, thinking the worst had happened.

Mickey still couldn’t get out a sentence, so Ian quickly cleared things up, “No, Mandy. There was another little boy found wandering around a town over, thought it could be Yev, but it wasn’t.” 

Mandy nodded in understanding as Ian nodded her over to take his place on the couch. 

“I gotcha big brother,” Mandy soothed as she sat down next to him and wrapped an arm his front and the other his back. She was shocked when Mickey immediately latched onto the arm at his chest, still crying. She’d been waiting for this moment since she’d arrived. She knew it was awful for him to be holding everything in and was determined to see him through this. “I got him,” she nodded at Ian who was getting up from the couch. 

Ian collected his things and saw himself to the door, “I’ll call if we get anything else today.”

________________________________________________________________   
  


Yevgeny Milkovich toddled out into the living room that was becoming familiar to him. His grumbling tummy had woken him up. No one was around in the living room so he walked into the kitchen. No one was there either. It must be really early. 

His daddy always had PopTarts in one of the lower cabinets for him to eat when he woke up before Mickey. His daddy got grumpy if he woke him up too early. Maybe this new house had PopTarts too. 

Yevvy opened up the dark brown cabinets below the counter and saw lots of pots and pans. No PopTarts. Another lower cabinet had bottles that looked like cleaning supplies. He knew he was never allowed to touch those. Daddy said those things could hurt him. Maybe the PopTarts were kept in a higher shelf in this house. There were no other kids around after all. 

Yevgeny looked up at the cabinets above the counter. It sure looked daunting to get up there. But he was hungry and none of the big people were around to help him, so he pulled over one of the kitchen chairs and pushed it up against the counter and climbed up. He reached his arm up and was soooo close to touching the handle but just wasn’t tall enough. His daddy was always saying being short isn't a bad thing, but right now, it seemed pretty inconvenient. 

Without giving it too much thought, Yevgeny hiked one knee up onto the counter and then the other. He was up. He stayed on his knees as he opened the upper cabinets and stuck his head inside.  _ Aha!  _ There were PopTarts...but they were on the top shelf. Of course. Yevgeny looked down at the ground below him, up at the PopTarts, and then back down again. The ground looked really far away. His dad forbid him to stand on the counters at home and he was starting to see why. But he was hungry, so what was a kid to do? 

On wobbly legs, Yevgeny slowly stood up, holding onto the cabinet doors. It was tricky since they were swinging open and closed with his weight. He braced one hand on a shelf and reached his other one to grab the PopTarts.  _ Success! _ As he stepped back to close the cabinet, he stepped a little too far back with his foot and lost his balance instantly, “AHHH--”

“Woah!” Yevgeny felt himself land in strong arms. For a second he thought they were his daddy, the person who usually catches him, but when he opened his eyes that he had shut as he started to fall, he remembered where he was. “What are you doing up there, kid?” Benny asked him as he stood him up on his feet on the ground.

Yevgeny watched him shut the cabinet and push the chair back to the table. “I was hungry. I wanted the PopTarts.”

Benny sighed, “Don’t be climbing up on shit. Last thing I need is a trip to the E.R.”

Yevgeny didn’t know what the E.R. was but apologized anyways, “Sorry.”

“S’fine kid.” He opened the box of PopTarts, “Here.”

“Fanks,” Yevvy smiled and sat down at the table.

Benny poured himself a bowl of cereal and joined him at the table for breakfast. 

“When is my Daddy coming to get me?” Yev asked through a mouthful of yummy breakfast. 

“I told you kid, when he’s done with his business trip.” Benny kept telling him about his daddy going on a trip. That’s why he had to go with him at the park that day. His daddy had told Benny to take him for a few days while his dad had a last minute work trip. His dad did sometimes go on work trips, but usually he stayed with Delva, a nice lady from his dad’s office. When he asked Benny why he wasn’t staying with Delva, Benny had looked confused and said that’s just how it was this time. But it was starting to feel like it had been a lot of days and his daddy  _ never _ left him for more than a few days. He was the best daddy. 

“But why is it taking forever?”

“It just is.”

“Is he coming back tomorrow?”

“I don’t know.”

“When is my daddy coming back for me!?”

“Would you just drop it kid!” Benny yelled at him and Yevgeny felt tears well up in his eyes. What did he do wrong? He threw the rest of his PopTart down onto the plate, hopped down from his chair and ran into the living room on the couch. 

Soon after, he heard footsteps he was coming to recognize as Benny’s. “Hey, kid--”

“I want to go home.”

The couch dipped next to him, “I’m sorry I yelled, Yev. I didn’t mean too.” Yevgeney poked his head out from the cushions. “Look, your dad is on a really important trip and until he gets back you have to stay here, okay?”

Yevgeny nodded and sat up. “Okay.”

“Let’s go finish breakfast.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like the Yevgeny perspective?


End file.
